Posts Tagged “www.agra-alliance.org”

AGRA Senior Policy Advocacy Fellows Jobs in Ghana and Tanzania 2012

Senior Policy Advocacy Fellows
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is a not-for-profit organization formed in 2006 to work with African governments, farmers, donors, NGOs and the private sector to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa through agricultural development targeted at resource poor farmers. AGRA has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and an office in Accra, Ghana.
AGRA’s Policy and Partnerships Program aims to increase the capacity of African governments and institutions to develop evidence-based agricultural policies that will drive accelerated and sustained adoption of agricultural technologies by smallholder farmers, raise household incomes and assure household and national food security in four (4) priority countries: Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, and Tanzania.
The Policy program focuses on five core priority policy areas: Seed sector policies and regulations to speed up adoption of crop varieties; Soil health policies to improve soil and crop productivity; Staple crop market and trade policies to stimulate expansion and efficiency; Land and property rights policies to stimulate equitable agricultural growth for the poor; and environmental and climate change resilience policies.
To achieve its objectives, AGRA is enhancing local capacity for policy analysis and advocacy in each of the priority countries through “policy action nodes”.
A policy action node is a group of existing or new policy research institutions and other stakeholders that have the technical expertise and are willing to work together to address policy, institutional and regulatory bottlenecks along an agricultural value chain.
A loose network of Policy Action Nodes constitutes a Policy Hub.
AGRA is also implementing the AGRA Policy Advocacy Fellowships Program (APAFP) with a broad objective to generate evidence for policy advocacy by the policy action nodes.
The AGRA Policy Program intends to recruit two (2) Senior Policy Fellows for the Ghana and Tanzania Policy Hubs with the lead responsibility of advocating and promoting more effective policies in agricultural and rural development.
Expected to be drawn from a pool of well trained and highly experienced individuals, the Senior Policy Fellows would be provided with the financial support needed to conduct policy analysis and advocacy to support the Policy Action Nodes’ agenda in Ghana and Tanzania.
Detailed responsibilities are listed in the Terms of Reference on AGRA’s website.
Qualifications
  • Candidates should have an advanced university degree in agricultural economics, economics, development studies, public policy, management or other relevant subject with at least fifteen (15) years of experience.
  • Senior policy makers with sound understanding of the political economy that shapes agricultural policies who can help translate evidence-based policies into action through their high-level connections with policy makers are also considered. Recently retired Policy Makers are strongly encouraged to apply.
  • Extensive experience and familiarity with the seeds, soil, market, land and property rights, and environment and climate change policies.
  • Proven intellectual, managerial and technical leadership of a high order in the relevant subject areas
  • Extensive experience in the handling of agricultural policies.
  • Ability to lead and work effectively with people of different backgrounds in a domestic or international environment.
Competences: 
  • Candidates should be conversant with current development debates and policies and should have experience of primary research in developing countries, working both independently and in close collaboration with development actors and institutions in those countries.
  • Experience of coordinating research projects and managing collaborative teams is also essential.
Duration and Location: The Senior Policy Fellowship will be held for up to two (2) years in duration and will be located at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) in Accra for Ghana, and at the Research on Poverty Alleviation for Tanzania.
Application procedure and deadline: 
Applicants are invited to send a cover letter illustrating their suitability for the above position against the listed qualifications, competencies, skills together with a detailed curriculum vitae, including names and addresses of three referees knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience.
All correspondence should be addressed to Dr. Augustine Langyintuo (ALangyintuo@agra.org) with copy to Dr. Konan N’dri (KNdri@agra.org).

Salary: A competitive salary including benefits commensurate with experience is offered.

This is a consultancy position and is tenable for a maximum of three years.
Closing date: October 20, 2012
See details at: www.agra-alliance.org
AGRA reserves the right at any time in the process to terminate this request without entering into a contract and to accept or reject any or all applications and is not bound to give reasons for its decision.
Canvassing in any form will lead to automatic disqualification.

AGRA Program Officer (Extension Support Function, Soil Health Program) Job in Kenya 2012

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is a not-for-profit organization formed in 2006 to work with African governments, farmers, donors, NGOs and the private sector to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa through agricultural development targeted at resource-poor farmers.

AGRA has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya and an office in Accra, Ghana.

AGRA is seeking to recruit an exceptional and experienced individual to fill the position of:

Program Officer – Extension Support Function (ESF), Soil Health Program (SHP)

Ref: PO-ESF/04-12

The Soil Health Program’s (SHP) main aim ¡s to regenerate degraded farmland by providing support to national institutions. Increasingly, the research and extension activities on major food crops are taking a value-chain approach.

This means taking a holistic approach to balanced Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM). The program’s core functions are grant-making and management in the areas of soil health research and extension, fertilizer supply, training of agronomists and soil scientists and policy development.

The Extension Support Function (ESF), which falls under the SHP, identifies appropriate methods for training extension and advisory service providers in the focal countries of AGRA, and makes targeted studies and grants to support the development and increased utilization of promising extension services.

This position is internationally recruited and will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, on a 3 year renewable contract and will report to the Director, Soil Health Program.

This position will require the job holder to travel up to 50% of the time.

Specific responsibilities will include:

  • Reviewing proposals and identify appropriate experts to review extension related activities to ensure “best practice” in grants;
  • Developing an in-house system to manage and disseminate information on best-bet extension approaches. This will involve synthesizing existing knowledge that is relevant and useful to AGRA’s grantees and programs work;
  • Setting up a user-friendly web-based system for information sharing;
  • Forging appropriate links and collaborations with institutions and projects in extension and advisory services;
  • Guiding the partnerships in preparing relevant extension and advisory material together with training programs for the programs that AGRA supports;
  • Identifying and coordinating appropriate and innovative interventions that attract and enhance the participation of the youth in agriculture and agricultural enterprises that AGRA supports and help advance this objective ¡n AGRA’s grant-making process;
  • Strengthening existing partnerships that advance AGRA’s efforts to mainstream youth in agriculture;
  • Working with AGRA’s Monitoring and Evaluation Unit to assess the 1m pact of AGRA’s investments and extension related activities by developing appropriate baselines and indicators; and
  • Identifying training needs and rolling out appropriate training events and policy advocacy activities that support the functions’ aims.
Key Qualifications, Knowledge & Experience:
  • A Master of Science (MSc.) or Doctorate (PhD.) degree in Soil Science, Agronomy, Agricultural extension, Rural Development or equivalent;
  • At least 10 years’ successful experience in agricultural research and extension, 5 of which should have been spent working on issues pertaining to agricultural development in Africa;
  • Demonstrated ability to synthesize and develop products using carefully reviewed sources of information from research and development projects;
  • Demonstrated experience in strategic planning, outlining options and presenting position papers that articulate a well-supported point-of-view and point to concrete actions;
  • Demonstrated ability to develop agricultural training and dissemination materials;
  • Sound skills in proposal development, project management and management of consultancy services; and
  • Fluent in English and sound working knowledge of French.
The ideal candidate should be attentive to detail, have excellent oral and written communication, relationship-building skills with the ability to work analytically, both with autonomy and with a team in diverse cultural contexts.

The candidate should also have high levels of integrity and objectivity.

An attractive remuneration package commensurate with the responsibilities of this position will be negotiated with the right candidate.

If you believe you can clearly demonstrate your abilities to meet the relevant criteria for this role, please submit your application with a detailed CV, stating your current position, remuneration, e-mail and telephone contacts and quoting the relevant reference number on the application letter.

For more information on this position, applicants can visit www.agra-alliance.org

To be considered, your application must be received by 27 April, 2012 addressed to:

The Director
Executive Selection Division
Deloitte Consulting Limited
Deloitte Place, Waiyaki Way
Muthangari, Westlands
Email: agra@deloitte.co.ke
Tel: +254 20 423 0000